Superman Family Adventures #8

The elemental aliens first seen at the end of last issue are on their way to Earth to find the Kryptonians, who are, at the moment, in the middle of "school" at the Fortress of Solitude, including History and Geography with Superman, Poetry with Jor-El, Phys-Ed with Zod and a "life lesson" from the Unknown Superman from the Future Future. They are then interrupted by a small bug, wearing the "evil colors" green and purple. After Superman tells the kids they can keep it, the bug speaks to them in Kryptonian and flies off. The Family give chase and happen upon the Super Satellite from last issue, which they didn't know existed. Inside, they see video footage of the destruction of Krypton and learn that it was caused by Brainiac.

The elemental aliens arrive, recount the details of Brainiac developing AI and "going rogue" and advise the Family that Brainiac is now on his way to Earth. They fight and the aliens are eventually defeated when Superman uses a Phantom Zone Projector to send them all to, you guessed it, The Phantom Zone (where Zod promptly commences a Phys-Ed lesson with them). Meanwhile, in the satellite Krypto has discovered additional video footage of him as a puppy being placed in a rocket with baby Kal-El and Jor-El telling Lara about his plan for the two of them to take refuge in the Phantom Zone.

Next, Superman uses the satellite's technology to repair the Family's damaged outfits and a curious Superman uses the Projector to retrieve Lara from the Zone. At first confusing Superboy for Kal-El, she is welcomed back to the Family with wide-open arms.

However, Brainiac is indeed on a collision course with the Fortress of Solitude!

Story - 5: Both Forrester and I are excited at the prospect that these stories have started to grow, which is to say that with this issue a stronger sense of continuity and broader arc development seems to be taking root. I bemoaned the evident lack of this kind of forward motion just two reviews ago and am very pleased to now be singing a different tune.

For his part, Forrester was more animated during our reading than he has been for at least the past three issues, asking a lot of questions or just otherwise being very intent on the proceedings. That was especially surprising given all of the exposition in the early part of the issue, with the school lessons and whatnot. The (possibly best) Donner reference so far (Zod's physical education drill: "Up, down, KNEEL!") was entirely lost on my young nephew, of course, but it had both me and his father, who is usually not present when Forrester and I are doing this, in stitches.

Otherwise, beyond introducing us to Zod, explaining who the elementals seen at the end of last issue are and - probably craziest of all - retrieving Lara from the Phantom Zone and reuniting her with Kal-El and all of the Family, this entire issue is really a set-up for what will clearly be next month's (probably epic) battle with Brainiac. But because it's obviously part of something bigger, as opposed to being just another in a generally random series of adventures, it completely works - for the kids as well as the adults.

And that, friends, is about all you can ask from an "all ages" book. If it keeps up like this, I'll probably start feeling like I'd be happy to keep reading it even if I didn't have a little one to read it to. Cool.

Here, by the way, though you probably did this yourself, is what the Jerk Bug (or whatever) had to say in its two bits of dialogue, decoded:

Before leaving for space: "Come with me, Superman."

In the intermission, after Streaky has swatted the bug against the wall: "Okay, I'll stop."

Totally not worth the time to decode, actually. I was hoping for something a little less obvious. Oh well.

Cover Art - 5: Another great cover that both makes perfectly clear what the "menace" is (or looks like, at least) without giving away anything important about the story (or, worse, as I've discussed, showing something that contradicts what's actually in the story). I can't begin to tell you the kind of good this kind of cover does me. Bravo, Baltazar.

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December 1: Richard Pryor, Gus Gorman in Superman III, born in Peoria, Illinois in 1940.
December 1: Joanne Siegel, wife of Jerry Siegel and the original model for Lois Lane, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1917.
December 8: Teri Hatcher, Lois Lane on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, born in 1964.
December 8: David Harewood, Hank Henshaw in the 2015 Supergirl TV series, born in Small Heath, Birmingham, England in 1965.
December 10: Richard Pryor, Gus Gorman in Superman III, dies of a heart attack in Encino, Los Angeles, California in 2005.
December 12: Sarah Douglas, Ursa in Superman: The Movie and Superman II, born in 1952.
December 14: Peter O'Toole, who played the role of Zaltar in 1984's Supergirl movie, dies in 2013, aged 81.
December 15: Artist Kurt Shaffenberger (Lois Lane, Superboy) born in 1920.
December 15: Helen Slater, star of the 1984Supergirl movie, born in Bethpage, New York in 1963.
December 16: Justice League Action will debut in the U.S. with a 4-part special event titled "Shazam Slam" on Cartoon Network.
December 29: John Haymes Newton, star of the 1st season of the Superboy TV series, born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1965.
December 30: Kristin Kreuk, Lana Lang on Smallville, born in Vancouver, B.C, Canada in 1982.